“First. His entire network of businesses is located in Russia or former Soviet satellite countries. We’ve operated in Russia before, but not in a while—and it’s far easier said than done. Second. The guy owns the largest private military contracting agency in the world. He supplies entire mercenary paramilitary units to the highest bidders around the world. Putin allegedly uses Pichugin’s forces when he’s looking for plausible deniability about Russia’s involvement in a conflict, like the eastern Ukraine front, Crimean Peninsula, or Syria. We’d need a small army of our own to go after him.”

“They all have their weaknesses,” said Berg. “We’ve hit harder targets than Pichugin.”

“Only as a last resort,” said Rich.

“Fair enough,” said Berg.

“How did you piece together the link between Belsky’s company and Pichugin’s?”

“A hunch,” said Berg. “Firebird Development was kind of a dead end. An anonymous Delaware corporation, with its listing agent registered as another anonymous Delaware corporation. Classic hide-the-owner shell game. With Russia on my mind, I ran a search through the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control public database to see if Firebird Development was on their sanctions list. Stab in the dark.”

“Bingo?” said Devin.

“Big time,” said Berg. “Firebird Development popped up on Yuri Pichugin’s asset list. Pichugin had been sanctioned through the Magnitsky Act in early 2013, which bans him from entering the United States and freezes all of his US-based assets, including Firebird Development. I found Andrei and Viktor Belsky listed in the sanction filing as the previous owners. Apparently, the US Treasury Department cut through the corporate shell game and surfaced their names. A quick Google search confirmed that the Belskys had indeed moved up in the world.”

“This is a head-scratcher,” said Devin. “I mean . . . how do we use that information? Try to get the Treasury Department interested?”

“We don’t have anything to offer them. They did their job. Firebird Development’s assets, if any still exist, are frozen in accordance with the Magnitsky Act ruling,” said Berg.

“It didn’t look like they’d skipped a beat, other than reduced attendance,” said Devin.

“Kids these days. Addicted to their phones and social media,” said Rich. “In the seventies and eighties you still had a shot at brainwashing people.”